Hive Mind Halloween

Fifteen years ago, we hosted a little Halloween party at our house here in Wallingford. We called it Hive Mind Halloween and 15 or 20 friends showed up. Great costumes, good time. The next year, a few more people came, and a few more the year after that, until, by 2004, we topped 400 people, which is considerably more than a little Wallingford craftsmen is meant to hold, even with two floors, a full basement and a big back yard. To our neighbors that year, our apologies!

So, we started renting spaces for it, first Little Red Studio over under I-5 and then we teamed up with the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center over in West Seattle. Last year, which was intended to be the last Hive Mind Halloween, just under 1,400 people came.

Why? Well, it’s a big party with a house party feel: different groups of people take over different rooms and spaces. This year, the line-up reads:

Come worship in the Chernobyl Chapel (Flight to Mars), take a dip in the Deep Blue Sea (Cabiri), have a drink at the Unicorn Bar (Space Virgins), relax in Madam G’s Purgatory Parlor (G-Spot), wander in the Flickering Fire Garden (Knomesthetics), sing for your sauce at the Philthy Sanchez Karaoke Bar and sate the munchies with eats from Street Treats and Grilled Cheese Revolution. Shameless are lining up two rooms of music, live and DJ, to keep your feet moving throughout the night:

100% of the profits are split between Youngstown (which provides arts education for at-risk youth, office space for arts and environmental groups and other community-building type loveliness…) and Room to Read (which builds schools and libraries as well as provides scholarship money for girls in Nepal, Vietnam, Laos, etc.), so besides being a good time, it’s a good cause. How ’bout that?

Wallyhood is dedicated to fostering community and communication in the Wallingford neighborhood. A group of volunteer editors rotate the responsibility of managing the site, and we welcome stories from all our neighbors.

This week’s editor is ​Jack McLaughlin. You can contact the editor-of-the-week at [email protected].

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